Mineral Resource at Lucara’s Karowe Sees “Significant” Value Increase

Lucara Diamond Corp. (TSX:LUC) announced that it has factored a “significant population of large and exceptional diamonds” into the mineral resource estimate for its Botswana-based Karowe mine. The diamonds, recovered over the past year, have resulted in a more than $1-billion increase in the in-situ value of the indicated mineral resource.

As quoted in the press release:

The highlights of the mineral resource update, valid at the cut-off date of 21 October 2013, are a recoverable Indicated mineral resource estimate at a 1.25mm bottom cut-off size of 46.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 16 carats per hundred tonne (cpht) with an average modeled diamond value of US$394 per carat, and a recoverable Inferred mineral resource of approximately 21 million tonnes at an average grade of 14 cpht with an average modeled diamond value of US$412 per carat. For details, please refer to Table 1.

The recovery of significant numbers of large and high value diamonds from the centre and south lobes of the mineral resource being mined at Karowe has resulted in a positive change to the modeled and recovered size frequency distribution significantly increasing the overall modeled average price per carat for the Karowe Mine compared to the previous mineral resource estimate.

Click here to read the full Lucara Diamond Corp. (TSX:LUC) press release.